Movie Review: ‘AFTER.LIFE’

It’s been a while since Christina Ricci has graced our presence with a new movie. So with names like Ricci, Justin Long, and Liam Neeson in the film you would think this had the potential to be a box office success but due to bland reviews it received after it was premiered at the AFI film festival last year the film went on a short run limited release to theaters and is now being released on DVD. The film is directed by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo which is based off her original screen play.

The film centers on Ricci who gets into a horrible accident and some how wakes up in the morgue if a funeral home with an eerie funeral director (Neeson). Even though she can tell she is getting prepped for burial she still feels very much alive and is demanding that Neeson let her go because even though she can’t feel anything she insists that she is very much still alive. Neeson convinces her that he hears it from dead people all the time and that she is just in the transition from life to afterlife. There is more than meets the eye with Neeson’s character and the only one who sees this is the grief stricken boyfriend played by Long. Neeson convinces Ricci that he has the ability to talk to dead people but she does not believe him because she really feels alive and thinks that Neeson may be up to something also. Now I will say most of the film centers around those two with small glimpses of Long trying to convince the local authorities that there is something weird about Neeson and the funeral home. There never seemed to be any urgency in the movie as it slowly progressed from scene to scene with Ricci coming to terms with her dead lifestyle and what was to come.

Subpar acting by Ricci and Neeson try to keep you intrigued in the film, but the whole time there is a cat and mouse game of is he really able to speak to the dead or is she really alive and he is a sadistic killer keeping her um undead I guess, to torture her. I’ll tell you an hour into this and my head was hurting trying to figure out the point of all this. Of course near the end there are chances when you think Ricci may get away and try to bring this movie into light but it never happens and Long ended up falling into the same fate as Ricci as the closing credits come in. This film did nothing for me and I was very disappointed with the awesome cast but horribly written screen play. I’m sure the first time director has a chance to redeem herself with up coming projects but this film will leave a nasty little taste in the minds of viewers when approached by a new release from her. Maybe a high body count would have helped, Ricci looks better than ever and doesn’t disappoint in her nudity scenes but other than that the film falls too flat. It’s just too slow and too dramatic to keep you in it. I would and do expect better from this cast and it makes me want to  watch the film over again to see if there was some great element to the film that I may have overlooked. This movie can collect dust for all I care, but I know there are some die hard Ricci fans out there who will be all over this. All I have to say is grab a pillow because you will be deader than Ricci and Long in this film by the time it’s over. It gets released on DVD/BluRay DVD on August 3^rd.